How to Love a NICU Baby (and His Momma)

Premature babies don’t cry. At least mine didn’t. They make a labored grunting sound that seems sweet at first, but then you learn that it’s because they are gasping for air to fill their under-developed lungs. And that is anything but sweet.  I’ve never forgotten that silent operating room where I welcomed my twin boys into the world eight weeks early. In the fast-moving moments of their early and unexpected arrival, I held my breath in fear over the unknown path that lay before me. Premature babies don’t cry, but their mothers make up for it.

I’ve stood in a dark neonatal intensive care room with a fellow mom, as we stared at our tiny babies. She preparing to leave to go home, me preparing to stay there for the next five weeks. Our babies weren’t leaving, she just couldn’t afford to stay in the hotel next to the hospital any longer. Life and death are happening in the NICU—life is sustained by faithful doctors and nurses, and death is always around the corner as fragile babies fight to survive in a world they weren’t meant to enter just yet.

Loving premature babies is a pro-life issue.

It might seem strange to fold a discussion about premature babies into one on life.  But they are linked. Today marks the end of Prematurity Awareness Month. Unless you know someone who has passed through the NICU, or passed through the NICU yourself, you might not even know that this month of awareness exists. But it’s a vital component to our discussion on the sanctity of life. For a long time 24 weeks has been the big milestone for viability. If you can carry your baby until then, your baby has a much greater chance of survival. After 28 weeks the long-term effects of prematurity aren’t as severe. Babies born after 34 weeks often cannot be distinguished between babies born at term by the time they reach their first birthday. Medicine has come a long way in how it cares for tiny babies. And here is where the pro-life argument is strengthened. The irony of these life-sustaining measures is that doctors and nurses are daily working tirelessly to save the lives of babies that are legally considered life unworthy of protecting. Every day, doctors and nurses use their skills to heal and care for babies that are legally unprotected while inside of the womb. In some states a 24-week baby can be aborted, but in all states a 24-week baby is given a chance at life if born.

But the reality that all lives matter goes beyond just the babies in the incubators, though they absolutely matter. Like abortion is not just a tragedy against an unborn baby, so a premature baby is not separate from a mother who loves him or her. In some cases, babies are in the NICU because of something the mother has done or because the mother does not care about the baby, but in other cases the mother is deeply impacted by the separation from her baby. As one NICU nurse told me on a particularly difficult day, “you aren’t meant to be separate from them yet. It’s okay to feel the pain of that separation.”

As Prematurity Awareness Month comes to a close, how can we as Christians love both the premature babies and the mommas who yearn for them? Here are a few ways:

Hold the babies: There are a variety of reasons a baby may not have parents visiting. Sometimes it is because the parents live far away or need to go back to work. Others it is because the parents have done something to contribute to the baby’s prematurity and therefore don’t (or aren’t allowed to) visit. Many hospitals allow for volunteers to hold the babies that are well enough to be touched. Physical touch for a premature baby is a life sustaining measure. All of the wires, incubators, and tubes in the world can only do so much to recreate the womb for a baby who is not supposed to be outside in the world yet. Physical touch, while it seems small, is actually a very helpful and purposeful way to honor the life of these tiny babies.

Love the mommas: The separation the mother feels is unnatural to her. It feels like a part of you is missing. Pumping in a sterile hospital room, transporting milk to the hospital every day, separation from your baby (or babies), medical terminology you aren’t familiar with, and recovering from a physically traumatic event all contribute to emotional and physical fatigue. There is so much unknown. Will my baby survive? Will he have long-term health problems? Will I be able to care for him if he does? Our church provided meals for us the entire time we were driving back and forth to the NICU, and arranged for transportation for me to get to the hospital every day since I was unable to drive. This transformed my experience and gave me the energy I needed to care for my babies. But even as I type this I recognize there is a lot of privilege that is wrapped up into my NICU experience. I didn’t have to go back to work. I lived near the hospital. I could afford to stay at the hospital if I wanted to. I could even afford to eat lunch at the hospital if I stayed later than I anticipated. I had insurance that provide a hospital grade pump for me. I am married and didn’t walk through the difficulty alone. Prematurity is often tied to poverty, and it is a vicious cycle. From the chance to receive good prenatal care to the care needed after hospital discharge, pregnancy alone is overwhelming to someone living in poverty, and adding a premature baby to the mix only heightens that feeling. As Christians, we could do a lot to bolster our argument for the value of all life by loving pregnant women well (especially those in poverty) and loving mothers of premature infants well (especially those who feel all alone).

Every day there are fragile babies lying in a hospital room somewhere who if they were still in utero are legally allowed to be killed. I’ve seen them with my own eyes and held them with my own hands. The more we advance in our understanding of how a baby can survive outside of the womb, the better our argument against killing them inside the womb gets. The pro-life cause wins when babies live and thrive at every stage—from eight weeks early to five days late. The pro-life cause wins when we acknowledge that pregnancy isn’t just about a baby, but a mother, too. And loving NICU babies and their mommas is a good place to start in practically living out what it means to be pro-life.

****This post is in support of the Evangelicals for Life Conference put on by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (January 21-22, 2016 in Washington D.C.). If you are interested in attending or viewing the simulcast you can register here. 

In The Next 40 Years

In the next 40 years, I pray that our country would see it's endorsement of abortion as reprehensible as it's once approval of slavery.

In the next 40 years, I pray that millions more babies are born because of brave mothers who choose life over death.

In the next 40 years, I pray that thousands more crisis pregnancy centers would open up all over this nation and would continue in the work of saving the lives of the unborn and caring for scared mothers.

In the next 40 years, I pray that the idea that an unborn baby is a mere fetus would be a sad part of our past, not part of our national rhetoric.

In the next 40 years, I pray that my children and grandchildren live in a country where the killing of the unborn is as atrocious to all as segregating based on race is to us.

In the next 40 years, I pray that churches and Christians would continue in the brave endeavor to love pregnant mothers, adopt orphaned children, and serve at pregnancy centers all across this nation.

In the next 40 years, I pray that a post like this is not necessary because abortion is illegal.

Abortion on demand was legalized ten years before I was born. I don't even know a world where abortion is not part of our national conversation. I don't even know a world where abortion is not an option for a pregnant woman. I pray that one day that is no longer the case.

For all the babies who never got to experience the light of day and breathe their first breaths, God knows your names. And we have not forgotten you.

Are You Pro-Life Enough? Post at Her.meneutics

Earlier this week Her.meneutics published a post I wrote called "Are You Pro-Life Enough?". Taking a statement from a pro-choice writer I try to show how some of our language in the pro-life community sometimes comes across as less than pro-life, especially when it pertains to miscarriage and IVF embryos. To my shame, I have been party to such thoughtless comments. Here is part of the article:

"It's been many years since I uttered those heartless words to my grieving friend. Having now lost one child of my own through miscarriage, and having since walked with a number of women through miscarriages, none of us would say that what we lost was the "potential" for life. It was so much more than that. Our lost baby took with it the many dreams and hopes that began forming in our minds the moment we knew of the baby's existence. What was lost was a life that will never be replicated.

It's really important to never delegitimize the life that was once growing inside of a grieving mother or was once frozen in an IVF clinic. To her (and to God), this life was never a mere blob of tissue or a fetus. He or she was a life. Treating the baby as such gives meat to the bones of our fight for the unborn. And if we want to be consistently pro-life, we must care about every life, from the tiniest dot on an ultrasound machine to the embryo in the petri dish."

 

You can read the rest of the article here. And be sure to browse the new website while you are there. I think they've done a great job with it!

Who is Afraid of the Ultrasound?

We’ve all grown accustomed to seeing images on an ultrasound screen, or at least the pictures held proudly by expectant parents. Some choose to share these images with their friends and family. Some broadcast it to their internet friends. Others keep the images to themselves. And there are some who just flat out think no one should really be sharing these pictures with a broader audience—namely a social media audience.

Last month the Today Show (I couldn't find the video) tackled this topic by asking whether or not it was appropriate for women to share ultrasound pictures publicly. But what was most surprising to me was not as much their uneasiness with ultrasound pictures, but their hearty approval of another form of showing your pregnancy via social media—belly pictures. Weekly belly pictures are as prolific as ultrasound pictures. I’ve been known to post both. But they went even farther than embracing simply showing off a bulging belly. Not only are belly pictures more acceptable than ultrasound pictures, apparently the more skin revealed during the photograph the more “beautiful” the picture becomes. A pregnant woman in a bikini is deemed appropriate, while a picture of an unborn baby a little bit creepy.

Nearly nude pregnancy pictures are not a new trend. From Demi Moore to Jessica Simpson, showing off your pregnant body is the thing to do when you are a pregnant celebrity. But add an ultrasound picture to that photo shoot and the image suddenly becomes awkward and inappropriate, as if the image of an unborn baby removes the beauty from a pregnant woman’s aura.

Of course this is hardly surprising in a culture that doesn’t acknowledge these babies as human beings. But it is sad. While it might seem encouraging that so many celebrities are making pregnancy fashionable and acceptable, their embrace of pregnancy only goes so far. To heartily embrace a baby on an ultrasound machine would require the media to go against its approval of abortion. By calling an ultrasound image posted on Facebook a little bit weird they are staying right in step with their belief that these babies really are nothing more than the mere potential for life—not a life itself.

Christians understand that our culture has it backwards. To embrace the pregnant woman is to embrace the life growing inside of her. You can’t have a belly picture without the little one that is making that belly grow with each passing day. No amount of dismissing ultrasound pictures as inappropriate for public consumption can deny the fact that the ultrasounds don’t lie. They tell a very powerful story about the life that is growing inside of the mom.

It shouldn’t surprise us when the media portrays images of pregnant women as more acceptable than images of their unborn babies. That’s to be expected. But we also should remember that you cannot separate the mom from the baby either—they go together.

The Supremacy of Christ and Roe v. Wade

Yesterday marked the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion in every state. And while we grieve and fight to end abortion in our own country, we recognize that the slaughter of millions of children through infanticide is a worldwide epidemic. In our own country it's primarily through abortion, in other countries it shows up in sex-selection abortions and murdering of infants simply because they are female. It's horrific from every angle and it's a reality we must face.

Last week, my students learned about the image of God in my marriage and family class. The primary emphasis being that to understand marriage, to understand what it means to be male and female, we must first understand what it means to be created in the image of God. This has implications for a variety of things in our life, the most relevant one today is that all children regardless of gestational age are image bearers of our Creator. On Friday we watched a video by Voddie Baucham on the image of God and something he said stood out to me as I watched the above video. He essentially said that atrocities like slavery were eventually ended because of the supremacy of Christ. Why? Because Christians, who trusted in Christ as the supreme and greatest treasure, believed that all human beings were created in the image of God. They had incredible worth and value, regardless of the color of their skin. And that was worth fighting for.

What does that mean for us today? What does that mean for us as millions of babies have been murdered in this country alone? What does that mean for the woman in India who thinks that her eight daughters mean less in this world than one son? It means that, as Christians, we have an answer to the horror. We can fight with boldness because of what we know about God's creation. We can pray with passion because we know that God cares about baby girls in India and first-trimester babies in America. And we can trust that one day our Savior, King Jesus, will return and make all things new--from the repentant abortionist to the discarded baby.

When Life Begins

Many eyes were on Mississippi today as they ventured out to cast their vote in the important “personhood legislation” known as Initiative 26, stating that personhood begins when an egg is fertilized by a sperm. It is a polarizing piece of legislation that has led to harsh rhetoric from a variety of angles. I have not followed this story very closely, but one article that I read today enraged and saddened me.

Arthur Caplan is the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. He wrote an opinion piece posted on msnbc.com regarding the implications of this amendment. He states:

“Fertilized eggs could be granted human rights, depending on how Mississippi voters cast their ballots Tuesday on Initiative 26. The ballot measure, otherwise known as the "personhood" amendment, proposes to amend the state's constitution to redefine "person" to include "every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof." Among other things, it could mean that couples who have turned to fertility clinics for help becoming parents won’t be allowed to ever destroy their unused fertilized eggs.”

And this, he says, is in direct opposition to science—namely what we know about the conception process. Fertilized eggs cannot be considered human beings, in his opinion, because science does not allow for it. Science, he says, only calls a fertilized egg an embryo when it implants successfully in the uterus. And even then it’s not a baby yet.

What’s even more troubling about his conclusions is the fact that he brings miscarriage, stillbirth, and fetal death into his argument. He asserts that because nearly half of all pregnancies do not result in a living, breathing baby, those “fertilized eggs” were never really human after all. Using disappointed parents as his example, he says:

“Sadly, all too many couples know about the high rate of spontaneous abortion and stillbirth that haunts embryonic and fetal development. Roughly, one in six embryos will spontaneously abort or produce fetuses that do not develop properly and die in utero.”

Perhaps the most saddening statement of all, he further adds:

“Medicine and science know very well what many millions of heart-broken would be parents around the world know first-hand: To call all embryos “persons” flies in the face of spontaneous abortion, stillbirth and fetal death.”

What? How does calling a miscarried or stillborn baby “fly in the face” of this death? As a mother who has lost a child through miscarriage, I resent the sentiment that my loss proves to me (and the scientific community) that the baby I was carrying was actually nothing more than an ill-formed, fertilized egg. And I don’t know any woman who has experienced pregnancy loss who has felt what Mr. Caplan seems to think is the norm.

The problem with his views, and the views of many who dismiss pregnancy loss as a product of nature running its course, is that their views are informed by cold scientific theories rather than God’s word.

Psalm 139:3-4 and Jeremiah 1:5 were a great source of comfort to me in the days following our loss. God’s word taught me that our baby, even though he was still in the early stages of development, was known and loved by the God who created him. These verses, and the entire Bible, speak to the reality that so many mothers know to be true—life matters to God.

If we don’t define personhood from the beginning (at fertilization) then when does it begin? When there is a heartbeat? When the baby starts moving? When a woman sees those wonderful blue lines confirming pregnancy, she doesn’t tell her family and friends that she is carrying a fertilized egg (though according to Mr. Caplan that is the scientific name for it). She announces that she is pregnant with a baby, not a blob of tissue waiting to be developed into a person. When she finds out the gender of her baby, even though the baby cannot live outside of the womb, she names him or her. To her, this baby is loved, cared for, and wanted.

What Mr. Caplan fails to realize in his piece is that for the parents who lose children at various stages of pregnancy the loss is felt acutely—and often stays with them for a lifetime. My baby was not a fertilized egg that failed to develop, Mr. Caplan. My baby was a life, known by God and loved by his parents. He was a person at the moment of conception.

The Crisis of Pregnancy Reduction

“I couldn’t have imagined reducing twins for nonmedical reasons,” she said, “but I had an amnio and would have had an abortion if I found out that one of the babies had an anomaly, even if it wasn’t life-threatening. I didn’t want to raise a handicapped child. Some people would call that selfish, but I wouldn’t. Parents who abort for an anomaly just don’t want that life for themselves, and it’s their prerogative to fashion their lives how they want. Is terminating two to one really any different morally?”

This has haunted me since I read it over a month ago. The quote came from an article in The New York Times Magazine on August 10. The article chronicled the troubling trend of pregnancy reduction in twin pregnancies. Pregnancy reduction, a sterilized euphemism for abortion, is not uncommon in multiple pregnancies, but when a couple decides to reduce from a twin to a singleton some in the medical community begin to draw the line.

The article presents the situation as a mere choice for these parents. Children, after all, are a commodity that many spend thousands to conceive, but when they get more than they bargain for the lines become blurred. If the children in utero are shown to be a consumer good, rather than a precious life, then the choice seems a lot easier.

But is it?

Choices have consequences, sometimes lifelong ones. For the families who choose one baby over the other, the lifelong memory of the child that could have been most likely never dissipates.
But what haunted me the most as I read this article was the rationale for aborting these children, and so many others, is founded in the belief that we are autonomous beings in control of our own destiny. We have the right to dictate how our life plays out, and when it takes an unexpected turn (like a multiples pregnancy or a baby with Down’s syndrome) we take the necessary measures to adjust our lives to our liking.

As much as we want to make our lives fit neatly into a perfectly square box, it won’t. Life is fluid. It changes. It is flawed and broken. And we don’t really have a choice in the way it unfolds sometimes. We are not God, and the more we try and play his role the farther into darkness we will descend.

This article messed me up when I read it. Maybe it’s because as I read the article I kept thinking “but I would take your baby! I would love your baby that you don’t want!” Or maybe it’s because in the back of my mind I saw a little piece of myself in the stories of the women presented. Yes, I would never abort my baby even if I had a multiples pregnancy or my baby had an abnormality. But I do try to play God in the little things in my life. I try to control every aspect of my fertility so I can at least think I have a shot at getting pregnant again.

But I’m not God either. And he knows my story and the details of my life just as much as he does the lives of the women who think they are controlling their own universe. More importantly, he knows the names of those precious unwanted babies, discarded as medical waste on the altar of their parents’ desire for freedom and comfort.

To all of this heartbreak we say, Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Wilberforce for Today

I've been reading Eric Metaxas book, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, and it has been as challenging as I thought it would be. I thought I knew a good bit about the abolition of slavery, but have realized that most of my knowledge about this horrible practice is from American history. Wilberforce was the leader of abolition in England, so I've learned a whole new aspect of history that has been insightful and made me really think about the implications for me in the 21st century.

By God's grace, slavery as they knew it in the 19th century is now over. Wilberforce led the effort as a member of Parliament in England. His driving conviction was that all human beings were created in the image of God--even African human beings. This belief catapulted him as the leader of the abolition movement, one that was not without tremendous persecution. Besides the fact that his physical condition was plagued by frequent illness, he faced death threats and hatred from his own countrymen on multiple fronts. Those involved in the slave trade were so tied to their belief that the slaves were nothing more than property that they would stop at nothing to remove this troublesome obstacle, namely Wilberforce.

As I read the horrific accounts of life for the slaves on the slave ships I was overwhelmed with sadness and anger. "How could Christians in Britain and America believe that this was the right thing to do, or let it go on for so long?" I thought. We have the vantage point of looking back now that this form of slavery is abolished, but are we really any different than our brothers and sisters from two centuries ago? Sure, we don't have a commercial industry devoted to buying and selling human beings. But we do have pristine abortion clinics masquerading as medical facilities devoted to the good of women and society. And let's not forget that millions of people, many of them women and children, are still in bondage as slaves even today. We might not ship slaves from Africa to serve on sugar and cotton plantations in the South and West Indies, but we do ship countless women and children to brothels and perverted men across the globe.

I don't know what the answer is. The activist in me wishes I did. There are good "Wilberforce-like" ministries in place that help pregnant women choose life, provide a healing place for trafficking victims, and prosecute those who buy and sell human beings. I can pray for them, and pray that God raises up more just like them. And I can pray that God gives me less complacency and more concern for the suffering and abused in this world. He is the only hope for all of us. Wilberforce understood that, as evidenced by his later efforts to make a way for missionaries to go to India. He wasn't about abolition for abolition's sake. He was about abolition so God would get glory.

Reading this book has been a sobering reminder that it's easy as a society to believe that the ways things are is the way things are supposed to be. As Christians, we have a greater authority than societal norms. Wilberforce understood that and did something about it. I'm thankful for his example for all of us. May I be willing to do the same.

Laura Bush on Abortion

Last week Laura Bush discussed her views on abortion (and other things) on Larry King Live. Based on what she said, she has been, and still is, in favor of abortion rights. Many things could be said about this information, but the thing that struck me most was the fact that she is a woman who is affiliated with conservative views. And not just any woman, a woman married to a president who was praised and endorsed for his commitment to being pro-life.

This says a lot about the need for women, especially Christians, to be committed to and vocal about being pro-life. It is a blessing when godly men exercise their calling as protector and defend women and the unborn. But, there is something very profound about a woman who stands for life in the face of many women who would say she is “abandoning the sisterhood.”

For pro-choice women, a pro-life husband and pro-choice wife makes perfect sense. In their minds a man holds that position because he’s never the one who is pregnant. But a pro-life woman can be perceived as confusing—and anti-woman.

Just because a pro-life man can be explained away as a chauvinist doesn’t mean he needs to stop being pro-life. The same goes for a woman who is labeled as backward and anti-woman. God is the author of life. Babies in the womb are image bearers of our King, not issues to be flippantly discussed and argued over. As much as the abortion movement would like to say that we are autonomous and have rights over our bodies, the reality is they never were our bodies to begin with—they were (and still are) God’s. He is the author of life and he decides when life ends.

I think it is sad that a woman who in some ways claims conservative principles would be so quick to be in favor of keeping Roe v. Wade as law. But it makes me wonder what would happen if an army of pro-life women joined the cause to be defenders of the unborn, even when women of their own political party are against them. People would watch.

(HT: Denny Burk)

Why I Am Pro-Life

Earlier this week a good friend of mine posted a "guest post" that I wrote about being "Completely Pro-Life." She has asked various friends and bloggers to write about what it means to be pro-life in every stage of life. I chose to write about being an advocate for life in the womb.

On a side-note, I really value Amanda's blog. She and I were both writing majors together in college, so we have been reading each other's thoughts for a while now. Her thoughts keep getting better, in my opinion. She has a gift for writing compelling stuff. It makes me think. It makes me pray. And it makes me ask God to equip me to be a better and more fruitful wife and keeper of my home.

Back to my post. We tend to think of the pro-life issue in terms of political parties. But it is more than that. So much more. Here is a preview of my post:

In many ways, the abortion issue can cause us to feel weary. The statistics can spur hopelessness. The constant barrage of anger, bitterness, and hateful banter can make it seem like a pointless cause. But in the midst of it all those numbers are souls that once lived in bodies—little image bearers of our Creator. Being pro-life is not about politics. It is about the Gospel.

As Christians we of all people should be the most concerned about life in every stage, especially in the helpless stage of the womb. But why should we care? From the beginning of time we understand that God created men and women equally in his image (Gen. 1:27). People bear the image of their Creator—God. This is staggering. Every soul lost through abortion is an image bearer of the King. But to take this even further, Christians are to also care about the least defended, the least protected, and the helpless. Who is more helpless than a 10-week old baby nestled not-so-safely in the womb of a mother who is determined to kill it?

In the post, I talk about being pro-life means being pro-mom. As we think about Mother's Day, maybe God is stirring in your heart an increasing desire live out your pro-life convictions by being a blessing to a mother in need. It's just a thought. Either way, I hope you read the post and visit my friend's blog. And I pray that God makes us all more passionate about the cause of life.

You can read the rest of the post here.

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday 2010

Yesterday was Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in the Southern Baptist Convention. Every year Southern Baptist churches take the third Sunday of January to encourage believers to continue to care about the lives of the unborn. Our pastor preached a message yesterday out of Psalm 139. He showed us again that God is the author of life, human beings are created in God's image, and human beings are created for the glory of God. Recognizing the sanctity of human life is not just for babies in utero, although it is massively important that we fight for them. Valuing life is about caring for the elderly, adopting the orphans, volunteering at the crisis pregnancy center, helping a single mother, mentoring a foster child, and going on the mission field. We value life in all stages because God wants people to worship him; and we should want this too. People are precious. They are image-bearers of our King. Not waste to be discarded.

Daniel and I have talked a lot about what this would look like for us; long-term and short-term. We don't know yet. But we do know one thing. Valuing life will mean giving up our own life. It is not enough just to say that we are pro-choice when we don't care about the life that is wasting away all around us. Valuing life will mean we are a little (or a lot) less comfortable than we would maybe like. But it only matters if this is all we have to live for.

My prayer for myself this year is that I would be comfortable with the uncomfortable in whatever avenue that means for my life right now. I want to be willing to sleep a little less on a Saturday morning so I can volunteer at the crisis pregnancy center. I want to spend less time browsing Facebook and more time browsing sites that make me love the world more. I want to value life in all stages in a way that helps people see Jesus as the one who makes us really live.

Abortion and Women's Rights

I know it has been pretty quiet around here lately. I am still trying to figure out how to be a new wife, church member, employee, and friend; and then fit in other things (like blogging). I have a TON of ideas in my head, but they haven't made it to paper yet. I promise they will. One idea did make it to paper (or I guess I should say, the idea made it to the computer). I wrote a post for CBMW this week on abortion and women's rights. It is called Life-Giving is a Woman's Issue.

Every day on my way home from work I drive past the local abortion clinic. I used to do it because it was the quickest way home. Now I am reminded to pray everyday at 5:15 when I am driving by it. The rights of the unborn are something that we should all be concerned with. As women we are called to be life-givers, not life-takers. My prayer for the women who enter the clinic, and everyone else inside, is that God would open their eyes to the horrors of abortion and that their would no longer be a need for the abortion clinic. Until then, I will keep driving by and praying.

You can read my post here.

Dr. Hamilton on the Great Civil Rights Crisis of Our Day

My professor here at Southern wrote an excellent post this week calling abortion the "great civil rights crisis of our time." I appreciate the clarity and honesty that he exhibits in this post. For a long time I felt apathetic about the abortion issue. I foolishly thought that there was little I could do personally for the cause of the unborn, and therefore didn't really ever think about it. Everything changed with this election. Not because abortion became more important to me, but because I truly believe that God used years of teaching on abortion and pro-life issues to finally convict me of my apathy. It is so easy to be desensitized to issues that bear so much weight because it essentially feels like I have no voice. But I wonder if my Christian brothers and sisters felt the same way when African-American brothers and sisters (created in the image of God) were beaten and even killed right under their noses. Did they feel helpless in the cause too?

But we are not helpless. We serve a big God who knows the names and faces of every one of those little ones who are discarded as medical waste. And he knew the face of every slave who suffered and labored at the hands of sinful slave-owners. Satan wants us to feel apathetic. He hates the image of God and he will stop at nothing to destroy it, even if it means making sinful people like me apathetic to the cause of life. So I encourage you to read Dr. Hamilton's post. It made me think. It made me cry. It made me feel like I have a responsibility to do something. But most importantly, it made me pray to the only One who can help us save the precious lives that are lost in the name of "freedom." May God have mercy on us all.

You can access the post here.

China's Forced Abortions

NPR Morning Edition came out with a story on April 23 reporting on accounts of forced abortions that have been surfacing in China. I could barely stomach the article as I read of mothers being taken to hospitals against their will, and father’s signatures being forged on documents after refusal to sign off on their child’s murder. It really is horrific. I had refrained from writing about the Virginia Tech massacre partly because I was numb, but in the wake of the Supreme Court ban on partial birth abortion and all of the language surrounding that ruling, and now this finding in China, we must label the darkness for what it is—evil.

We can repackage the stories all we want, but the truth will always remain that lives have been lost. And in a few days, I will forget that these poor women were dragged to a hospital to await the imminent slaughter of their unborn baby, just like I have forgotten about the bones of the little girls in India. But God does not forget. He sees all, knows all, and is in control of all. In college I was told that I could not write that Christ was the answer to all of these awful events. It was too simplistic. But now, more than ever, I am convinced that the only hope for anyone amidst the rampant wickedness that lives in us and around us is Jesus Christ. The Chinese government can seek to “manage” their population through the destruction of the innocent, but there is a judgment coming. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. Our hope is built on the slaughter of a Jewish man 2,000 years ago who rose from the dead and conquered sin and will one day come back and judge those who refuse to repent. He will make all things right. Until then we say, Maranatha, Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Here is a link to the article:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9766870

Mother Sues Planned Parenthood for Botched Abortion

A Massachusetts woman (according to today’s Boston Globe) has sued a doctor and Planned Parenthood for malpractice regarding her abortion. The problem—the abortion didn’t work, and now she is upset that she has to raise the child. She is suing them demanding repayment for damages and child support, since she is now stuck raising an “unwanted child.”

Initially when I read this article, I was angry at the woman for dragging her disdain for her child out this long (the abortion procedure was performed two years ago). Then I was angry at a justice system that would allow such a thing to even make it past the initial complaint. But the thing that struck me most was the fact that this is about more than a botched abortion that resulted in an unwanted baby. This is about a little girl who will one day grow up into a woman, and will know that her mother fought against her not only when she was in the womb but two years after she entered this world. Not only will she grow up knowing that her mother tried to have her killed once, but she will grow up (with the court and news media documentation to prove it) knowing that her mother didn’t even want her after she saw her face for the first time.

We live in a strange world where mothers can so flippantly disregard their children as mere lifestyle choices that can be terminated at will. But even stranger, that mothers can now sue Planned Parenthood for child support when they fail to do what they promise—kill their babies. We have so separated the maternal instinct from child birth. Gone are the days where mothers feel a deep connection with their unborn children. Post-feminist America has distorted our understanding of what it means to be a mother. I pray for this little two year old, that one day she will be brought to saving faith in Christ and know that we serve a sovereign heavenly Father who did not allow her mother’s selfish lifestyle choice to bring about an end to her little life.

Amy Carmichael and India's Infanticide

My heart broke today as I read the reports from India on the 390 body parts of newborn and unborn babies in a mass grave behind a hospital. The United Kingdom newspaper, Times Online (I would post the link to the article, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet) reported that, according to UNICEF, 50 million girls are missing from Indian society, and 10 million baby girls have been aborted since the ultrasound technology was first used 20 years ago.

The fact that this incident happened in India caused me to reflect on one of my heroes, Amy Carmichael. Carmichael was a missionary to India who devoted her life to rescuing children from moral danger. She began by saving young girls from the horrors of temple prostitution, and inaugurated a children’s home that still stands to this day. She would march into temples, often times at great peril, and would demand for the little girls to be released to her.

Amy Carmichael did for India what the pro-choice movement never will be able to do. She gave young girls back their dignity, and told them that their life was significant to God, even if society told them they were expendable. In our society’s quest to preserve the “rights of women” we are actually annihilating our own gender. And worst of all, we are destroying human beings made in the image of God simply because they were born female.

Where are the Amy Carmichael’s of today? The women who give their lives to rescue the little ones from the snares of death and sin. My heart cries for these little ones who were never given the opportunity to see life, to be adopted into a home, to be held by a mother who loves them. May God be pleased to raise up a generation of committed followers of Christ who stand in the face of infanticide and say that life is valuable and that all babies are a gift from God.